Critic Reviews

I really enjoyed SiN Episode 1. While I was playing it I wondered what made this game any better than any number of other FPS titles on the market today, but I realized that at a budget price, this game is actually really good. Not many games in this genre are released with a $20 price tag, so some gamers out there might not really know how to deal with a game that is a little light on the content but much lighter on the price. Give it a shot, though, and I think you'll find that it's a great game no matter how much it costs.

I really didn’t know what to expect heading into the first episode of SiN. I had seen some people try to play down the game but when I first started it up I knew I was in for something fun. Emergence is an entertaining episode that puts up quite a challenge and ended up seeming longer than what I had originally expected.

There's little doubt that Emergence is a game of genuine quality, a shooter that'll stretch your trigger skills to their limits while entertaining you with a tantalising plot that gives just about enough away to hook you and reel you into Episode 2. Had it been a full price game, then perhaps Emergence would have been a borderline Recommended, but given its minuscule price tag, it's a bit of a steal. While it may not be the most groundbreaking of shooters, Emergence's merits far outweigh its smattering of faults, and with six to ten hours of entertainment to be had, you can't argue that it's not value for money, especially as it also comes bundled with a copy of the original SiN. Eleven quid you say? Bargain.

Ritual's Sin Episodes: Emergence is a strange case for several reasons. To begin with it's a sequel to Sin, a game that's eight years old. Most franchises are lucky to be remembered after two years have gone by. Second: though it is in stores, it's being distributed primarily in digital form through Valve's Steam network. Finally, the "episodes" bit refers to the fact that Emergence is only the first in a series of small, budget-priced games that tell an overarching story. To my knowledge this is a completely new way of distributing games.

While more than a few games leave me wondering what the developer could have done if they'd had more time and resources, SiN Episodes feels like a complete and polished experience that's been mulled over and considered for quite some time. Unfortunately, it often feels like a throwback to an older, streamlined style, where sheer explosiveness reigns over tactical nuance and variety. For twenty bucks, though, it still offers more than many shooters selling for full retail -- and it's only the first installment. It's no Call of Duty, or Half-Life 2, for that matter, but I won't deny that I'm looking forward to seeing where Ritual goes with the rest of this story.

That said, I can tell you that SiN Episodes starts out really slowly, in a true fashion of old-school FPS games - with lots of generic bad guys to kill and some less than thrilling opening levels - but, it gradually heats up as you keep at it, following the general principal of FPS design seen in games like Half-Life. The player will feel like he is acting out the story, rather than being a passive observer of the events unfolding. The game does a good job of shifting between indoor and outdoor environments, as well as gradually increasing the difficulty and the variety of enemies, introducing new characters, environments and weapons into the story as you progress. Level design is good enough to keep the gameplay dynamic and engaging at all times (though very linear). This used to be the hallmark of old-school FPS design and it's sort of good to see it implemented so well in a modern game.

A lot of people from the business side of games are going to be watching this one closely. As the first high-profile game title to try the combination of episodic content with direct downloading, this could be the beginning of a new way to get your games. It’s about the only thing about SiN that is likely to change the world in any measurable way, since the game content itself is very much in line with shooters we’ve all played before. Fortunately, it’s the variety of FPS that anyone should be more than happy to enjoy again – non-stop action, constant explosions, and enemies that make up for their lack of intelligence by clever placement within the level and sheer force of numbers.

All in all, Sin Episodes: Emergence disappointed me a bit. Everything is crippled by the episodic way of delivery going from the very limited amount of weapons over only a couple of hours of gameplay, to the fact that you need to wait for the story to continue. The graphics are pretty decent and also the sound does a good job, but the AI and quite linear progression don't do the game justice. Up to now, Sin looks to become a pretty standard FPS by modern means (Doom 3, HL2, F.E.A.R., ...), let's hope the next episodes improve on that.

Emergence is a fun and somewhat retro first person shooter. While it does lack a little variety it never gets too dull, perhaps due to its slightly stunted length. I'm definitely going to recommend it for first person shooter fans, but it's not a classic, there's hope for future episodes though.

Fans of first-person shooters will get their fix from SiN Episodes: Emergence, but they might not leave the experience feeling genuinely excited for the next installment. The idea of splitting up a game like this into separate episodes seems like a good one, since many of us would be more than willing to pay $20 for an excellent single-player game that ties into subsequent chapters of the story. Yet the action and especially the story in Emergence aren't particularly impressive, so by the end of this brief episode, the novelty will have probably worn off. At that point, you can always fall back to playing the 1998 SiN game. And by playing it again, once you look past the graphics, you'll likely observe just how little this style of game seems to have evolved.

The first installment to SiN Episodes is really a tossup between wanting to know what happens next or completely quitting right away, because the gameplay is getting too old. For those of you who just love a quick shooter, running through Emergence at least once may be all that is needed to give you a quick fix. Otherwise, if you,re looking for a unique action experience, you,re not going to find that here. However, it has to be said that the episodic nature of these new SiN titles really leaves you hanging. You just have to ask yourself if you can sit through nine episodes of the same type of gameplay at $20 a piece just to learn what happens the next time around.

Lastly, the time frame of the game unfortunately is what's causing the downfall. At $20 dollars an episode, the game lasts from 3 to 6 hours depending on the level of difficult you choose. The cost of $20 for a 3-6 hour game seems a little steep. I think that a price tag of approximately $15 would be more reasonable. It really depends how you feel about spending a hard earn money on 3 to 6 hours of fun. All in all a game that has great potential but the next part has to be much better!!

Emergence doesn't quite work as an appetiser for a long series. As hooks go, not knowing what the main character's pumped with is a plastic clothes-peg in the mouth of a leviathon. What is here is a solid, conventional first-person shooter that plays to the strengths of the genre as they once were. And you know what? It's not big, it's not clever, but it is fun - and kudos to Ritual for making the game it wanted instead of trying to copy Valve. Although, seriously, give Half-Life a spin. It's quite good.

The selection of firearms never really delivers the sensation that you are wielding more than a cap gun, either. Although I will say that grenades that spread wildfire are pretty slick. All told, SiN has great tech, but comes up short in design.

Like the kid in school who’s capable of genius work but never applies itself, SiN Episodes: Emergence is a C quality experience that shows promise that it could be an A quality experience. SiN Episodes: Emergence is a solid game, but not an excellent game. As long as Ritual keeps making steps forward, the series will survive and prosper in the long-haul. If Ritual trots out SiN Episodes 2 with a similar experience, no new options, and no attempt to make me give a damn about the characters, I simply cannot see how people will continue pay the $20 price of admission for each installment.

The impressive aspects of SiN are more to do with the Source engine than any supposed innovations by Ritual. This is a huge shame given the potential offered by the episodic structure and it genuinely feels as if Ritual has missed a trick. We could have had sprawling story arcs and cliff-hangers but instead we’re left with big tits and nothing new.

If you were at all curious, the Source Engine, the same muscle behind Half-Life 2's visuals and physics, models breast physics just fine. That answer is provided to us in the first few minutes of Sin Episodes: Emergence, and provides just a hint of the kind of over-the-top violence, ridiculous humor, and brainless fun of the rest of the game.

As a fan of the original SiN, and someone who's been waiting patiently for major developers and publishers to embrace the idea of episodic content, I had high hopes for SiN Episodes: Emergence. I wasn't looking for anyone to reinvent the wheel; I was just hoping for some good combat with an interesting story behind it. Sadly, with ultra-generic gameplay and a muddled story, there's very little in Emergence to hook gamers into future installments. Hopefully Ritual can take advantage of the episodic format and remedy that in just a few short months rather than years.

Ok, so you already know the game’s going to be short. So the question on everybody’s mind has got to be is SiN: Emergence worth 20 bucks. It’s a fair question with a not so simple answer.

For the hardworking staff here at X-Play, it often comes down to quality and entertainment value over something as arbitrary as game length, so we were more than willing to give SiN a fair shake right off the bat. And from the very beginning, the game comes of as extremely promising.